


Dearly Departed

by owlcreek



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen, edward elric's kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-03
Packaged: 2018-03-10 06:19:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3279923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlcreek/pseuds/owlcreek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a flash fiction piece that takes place a decade or two after the events in Brotherhood. It begins with an old face inside the gate of truth. After a conversation with the gate keeper, he finds himself in the woods where he is faced with three teenagers weeping over a clumsy transmutation circle drawn into the dirt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dearly Departed

Tick tock. Tick tock.

  
The room was vast, but somehow he heard the same old clock tower tick away the hours. At 12 it would ring three times - once in the day and once at night. He could hear a train trudging across a beaten railroad and even the gentle flow of a river dribbling over smooth stones. He listened to these sounds each day and each night.  
He could see images from his past life. The memories shifted, but only three specific incidents replayed themselves.

He could see three small children playing together on a grassy hill.

He could see his wife smiling under an apple tree.

He could see his elder brother hollering and weeping into the soil.  
Three children on a hill, a kind smile, and a broken man. These were the three memories that lingered.

* * *

 

Tick tock. Tick tock.

  
The clock rang once.

  
Another day appeared to pass by.

  
It was like waking up from a stunning dream. The good and the bad were difficult to recall, but the emotions that those incidents evoked continued to loiter. He felt entombed inside the grogginess that surfaces after a peaceful sleep.

  
A faceless figure came and sat next to him. A coy smile rose from the vastness of its features as it leaned in. It whispered to him - the voice was giddy, but paced its words well. Each note rang with delight and a growing anticipation. The breathing was becoming brasher with each expression.

  
“Do you know why you’re here?” it asked.

  
He did not answer.

  
The clock ticked away.

  
“Do you remember whe

re you are?”

  
He did not answer.

  
Tick tock. Tick tock.

  
“Do you know you put you here?”

  
He did not answer.

  
A river gurgled in the distance.

  
“Are you having fun? Do you want to stay forever? You could, you know. I mean, no one is going to help you. No one loves you enough to break into Hell and bring you home. You’re nothing more than a token, a…a…currency. You’re pay. You’re a trade in. You’re a substitute. A prisoner. A tragic hero. An imbecile. You’re here because no one wants you and you’re heart is too big to say ‘fuck you’ to all the people who trample over your wilted flesh. You give your soul to these people and what do you get in return? Go on, don’t be shy. Tell me. What do you get in return?”

  
He did not answer.

  
“You get nothing. You are nothing.”

  
He did not answer.

  
It began laughing.

  
“Typical human. You’re all so dense.”

  
From behind them a marble door began to creek open.

  
“Oh,” said the voice, “It looks like we have a visitor.”

  
A wave of darkness crashed through the small opening and engulfed him in a frigid embrace. He cried out, but the shadows plunged down his throat and twisted around his bones. It pulled at his veins and splashed in his blood while all he could do was pretend this wasn’t happening. He reached out for the voice as the darkness dragged him toward the door, but the voice began laughing hysterically.

  
“Oh, you are in for a surprise my friend.”

  
The darkness blinded him and he began weeping. He dug his nails into the ground, but he was grasping at air. In one final desperate attempt, he held onto the gates, but the darkness was far too strong. The faceless figure continued snickering and holding its gut. The smile widened and it appeared directly in front of him.

  
He thrashed around – trying to grab a hold of the figure. He managed to find the shoulders and mumbled under the gag between his teeth. Tears were streaming from his hollowed eyes and he gripped the figure tightly, drawing blood if there was any to find.

  
The figured finished its laughing fit and put one hand on his head. The touch felt like a thick fog passing over his skin. He ceased weeping with the hope that this act of kindness would take him back to that amicable daydream.

  
“As I said, you humans are all so dense.”

  
With that it forcefully shoved his head away and allowed the shadows to rip him away from his only salvation. The gates screeched and clasped together.

  
His bones began quaking as the shadows seeped from his pores and dwindled away. His sight was returning, but the images were hazy and distorted. He could hear someone whimpering beside him, but the face was cloudy. All he could notice were long golden threads falling from the head of a limp body.

  
He glanced down at twisted limbs where his own arms and hands should have been. They were grimy and jetted out at unnatural angles. His neck felt broken. He could not speak. He tried to call out to the girl, but he could only wail and moan.

  
He attempted to walk, but his legs appeared to be gone. He fell onto the ground and inhaled the scent of soft dirt after a heavy rainfall. As his sight gradually returned, he could see pine needles and hear a creek bubbling in the distance. It was comforting to have the earth rest on his skin and listen to the cicadas.

  
It was all so familiar.

  
A second voice emerged and started hollering at a figure hiding behind the trees. He turned his skull to see a teenaged boy grabbing hold of a slightly older boy. His eyes were swollen and soaked. He pulled on the older boy’s collar and dragged him down beside the girl.

  
“I can’t do it.” said the older brother.

  
“Well, I can’t do alchemy so it can’t be me.”

  
“I don’t know how…”

  
“We’re wasting time, just do it!”

  
“Ben…”

  
“Do it you piece of shit!”

  
The younger brother lied down next to the girl and began shivering. His brother stood between them and rested his knees on the dirt. He placed his hands on the boy’s chest and muttered something in his ear. The younger brother laughed, but his voice was breaking.

  
A great light enveloped the younger brother and caused him to gag. His limbs thrashed wildly before falling stiff. The older brother held out a damp heart and placed it onto the girl’s chest. The same light engulfed her immediately and allowed her to breathe.

  
She lifted her head and began panicking, asking for her brothers. The older one pulled her into a tight embrace and began sobbing into her hair. She held him tentatively and looked over his shoulder at the lifeless boy beside them.

  
She shoved her brother away and began shaking the corpse. Her brother tried to tug her away, but she shrugged him off. She began weeping and asking the boy to wake up, but he would not. The older brother stepped away in silence and stared wistfully at the village down the hill.

  
He tried to call out to them, but once more, he could only wail. He sunk his skeleton fingers into the earth and began dragging this new body towards the three. When the girl looked up she cried out and leaped in front of her late brother.

  
“Stay away from him!” she said.

  
He continued moving forward – desperately making an attempt at communication. He wanted nothing more to comfort these kids because they presented a familiarity. The clockwork of his mind was disordered. Chaotic. He beat his fists into the ground.

  
The same memories began flickering before him.

  
Three children on a hill.

  
A woman smiling under an apple tree.

  
A broken man.

  
Tick tock.

  
His body was crying out and he could move no further. He clutched his skull and screamed at his own thoughts. His lungs began to ravel themselves and his skin was stung from an array of needles that felt to be pulsating from inside him. He gripped his rotting chest and sunk his head into the earth.

  
The girl steadily stood and crept over to the tormented figure

  
“Lily, don’t go near it.”

  
The girl did not listen. She placed a warm hand on his cheek and lifted his chin so that he could see her. She was young. She looked like a man he once knew.

  
“Uncle Al?” she asked.

  
His voice trickled out in a tense whisper.

  
“Help me.”

  
“Lily…”

  
“It’s okay.” She said to her brother. She turned to her uncle and repeated, “It’s okay.”

  
Softly, she pressed her lips to his dry and fractured forehead. Her eyes were damp and tears began dribbling onto the bridge of her nose.

  
“I miss you.” she said. “We all do. We thought…we thought we could make dad forgive himself.” She glanced back at her little brother in the dirt. Her voice came out hushed, “Oh god. Oh god…”

  
Al managed to lift one of his arms and brush aside a straggling tear. She tried to compose herself and smiled sorrowfully at her uncle.

  
“Don’t worry.” she said, “It will all be over soon.”

  
A white light flowed out of the creases in her palms and wrapped him in a warm embrace. He closed his eyes and gradually drifted off into a deep slumber. His beastly form fell limp into Lily’s arms and she cradled his head.

  
Her brother lifted Ben off the soil and clasped her trembling shoulder.

  
“Let’s go home.”

* * *

 

When Al awoke he was in a grassy field covered in dandelions. In the center was a great apple tree decorated in white blossoms. Beneath it stood a beautiful woman with long raven hair and kind eyes.

  
She began laughing and ran towards him. She wrapped her arms around his torso and squeezed him as tightly as she could. He kissed the top of her head and let the warmth from the sun soak into his skin. A spring breeze drifted past and made him feel alive again. May had tears streaming from her eyes, but she was smiling.

  
“Welcome home.” she said.

  
“Yeah,” He breathed in the essences of the euphoric meadow. A feeling of security and peace trickled over his soul.

“Home.”


End file.
